Windows Update

[frayadjacent]

Well, I thought I was going to become a Windows person for about 18 hours there, but the installation was so frustrating I gave up.  I could spend the weekend figuring out which drivers I needed to install and in what order.  Because without the drivers there was no way I could see to find out what kind of adapters my computer has and therefore what kind of drivers I need.  See how much sense it makes? 

Or I could just install Ubuntu, which I'd been debating doing anyway.  I harbor no illusions that this will be generally easier to learn or use than Windows, but I'm a lot more motivated to improve my knowledge and skills with Linux than with Microsoft products.  I already know some of the basics through work, though I've never had to deal with admin stuff before.  (Or been permitted to, for that matter.)

Still, within 5 minutes of inserting the Ubuntu install disk, I had functioning internet, and 2 hours later I've already installed VLC, Cinelerra (sorry, thirdblindmouse! I fear Blender), and some work-related apps. 

:D

Comments

[frayadjacent]

What I'm enjoying about Ubuntu so far -- besides, you know, functionality -- is that it's not as Windowsy and more OSXy. Which is much more familiar to me.

They even got me an iMac at work!

Nice! Just about all the faculty in my department have iMacs. I'm so jealous of my advisor's, with that great big gorgeous screen.

If only Sony Vegas was available for Mac

It looked like you were looking into FCPX for a while there? Any luck? It seems like the biggest issue is what file types and codecs the video editor will handle? Final Cut is so picky! That's actually the main reason why I'm doing this -- I wanted to at least try out a video editor that would handle VOBs and whatnot, so maybe I wouldn't have to clip! Though I've used FCP 7, maybe X is better on that front?

[littleheaven]

I did flirt with FCPX but again, it came down to the file types it would handle. Sony Vegas will edit pretty much anything, without need for conversion. And no pre-rendering required to preview (unless you files are so huge that it gets laggy).

It also has loads of neat little shortcuts, like being able to point your project settings towards one of your media clips and it'll automatically match it. And there are some cool third party plugins like NewBlue FX that you can get. I've been using it since 2003 so I'm kind of struggling to change. I also have Premiere Elements but haven't really given it a good try out yet. I made Dance Across The Floor on a trial version of Premiere Pro and it wasn't too bad, but I can't afford the full version. Vegas just has so much bang for buck, it's hard to go past.

[frayadjacent]

FCP (7, at least, and FCE) doesn't require pre-rendering...if you have the right file types and codecs! So, yeah. Not hardly helpful.

One of the main reasons I went down this road is because I wanted to give Sony Vegas a try, for exactly the same reasons. But it looks like I'll be going with Cinelerra instead. Which, hey, free is good! Like you say, this shit's expensive. And it sounds like Cinelerra is like Vegas in terms of being happy with a bunch of different file types and codecs. Which is awesome.

[littleheaven]

Yeah, Premiere Pro didn't need to pre-render as long as the file was Mac-friendly, which meant converting all my .vob files to .dv, which did affect the quality. I know Becca uses a really cool lossless codec for Mac, but it's quite expensive to purchase. If I had that, it would be much more of a close contest.

I'm quite keen to try Cinelerra at some stage. I don't have a computer that can run it at the moment, but I guess I could set up a virtual machine on my Mac Pro, via VirtualBox or Parallels.

[frayadjacent]

Oh yeah, that would work too. I'm sure I'll post about Cinelerra once I start using it!